When to Freeze

And then there were eight. Or maybe nine if the embryo which is “really trying to split into two cells” pushes on through.

Of the remaining embryos my best contenders are 3 embryos that are at the 4-cell stage and are “excellent” quality, one 4-cell remains average. I have a good 5-cell, two excellent 2-cell sized munchkins and a good 3-cell embryo.

For those of you asking about how long they are waiting to transfer, it’ll be in about two months. The whole focus on this IVF is to get the embryos ready and then cryogenically suspended whilst the Doctors get onto tricky issue of my womb lining. It is only when this is plumped, primed and ready for a long term inhabitant they they’ll defrost this week’s crop and attempt implantation.

The question now is when will they freeze what they have. The embryologist today was really keen on waiting until the little ones are five days old and reached Blastocyst before freezing. The logic is that if they reach blasts they are strong little blighters and are more likely to implant and with a wealth of 8 to choose from why not let a few more fall by the wayside in the hopes of identifying the best of the bunch.

My weak little counter argument was “but what if none of them get that far?”

So the embryologist has agreed to review my embryos from the last three rounds (I mean they have this wealth of data it would be a shame not to learn anything from it) see whether this is the best approach. I suspect she is humouring me, but that is fine as long as I feel like someone is listening to me it is better than being dismissed out of hand.

Tomorrow would be the earliest they’d freeze anything anyway. So we shall see.